4 Seasons In The Dark Forest - Landscape Photography Editing

Forest or woodland post-processing in Adobe Photoshop for all levels. Learn to post-process in a fantasy style.

What you'll learn

Editing the raw file for use in Photoshop with my smart object workflow.

Handling White Balance and Exposure for snow photography.

Range Masking: Controlling light in Camera Raw and Lightroom.

Creative Controlled Warping & The Transform Tool.

Separating colors that are close together to give more interest in your woodscapes.

Highlight Color Dodging.

Blending sun stars.

Handling reflections in water.

Dark mood aesthetic and working on your portfolio for consistency.

Luminosity Selections (RGB Channels and Tony Kuyper’s luminosity masks).

Handling HDR, direct sunlight and over-exposed skies and blending exposures in the forest (and their necessity).

Focus stacking.

Sharpening and Exporting for the Web to keep the colors exactly the same as you see it in Photoshop for the whole world.

Requirements

Some Photoshop experience.

Some Lightroom or Camera Raw experience.

Adobe Photoshop.

Adobe Bridge and Camera Raw (both free) or Lightroom (subscription)

Description

Includes PSD and raw files to follow along!Four seasons? What about six? In this monstrous tutorial, I’ll show you how to process 6 different forest photos shot in different conditions, seasons and light.Enter the Dark ForestHi, my name is Daniel Laan. As a landscape photographer for nearly 20 years now, I’ve been coming back to the Dark Forest theme for years. That moody visual style is directly related to the things I enjoy in life; Tolkien's books and Jackson's films, Game of Thrones, the Alien franchise… the fantastical sometimes borderline claustrophobic atmosphere…I love the forest. No matter which season. If you think autumn is the only season worth visiting the woods with your camera, you’re missing out.A dark winter forest is perhaps my favorite. The bleak, desolate landscape just appeals to me. We used to have a lot of snow here in the Netherlands, but winters have changed. It’s all bare trees now. So let’s bring your camera as I teach you all the ins and outs of woodland photography post-processing.In this complete 4-part video tutorial, you will learn how to edit forest photos from all seasons. We’ll cover summer, spring and several stages of autumn and winter photography so you can go to any forest confidently if the conditions are right. But you still have to go in the right conditions. What you will learn in this tutorial is not how to save a bad image, but how to make a good image fantastic.What’s included in this courseThese videos contain close to 7 hours’ worth of processing in total, including the full raw-to-result post-processing of 6 images and two hours of instructional videos about setting correct colors, luminosity masking and channel selections.Six PSD-files (resized) of photos that showcase the immense diversity you can find in your typical forest, with every adjustment still present. No secrets!All resized raw files (DNG) with every adjustment still present. Plus pre-processed focus stacks where applicable in case you want to skip this step.Tools and actions that save you time spent editing your photos.SpecsVideo first part: H265 MP4, 3840x2160 (4K Ultra HD). 25fps, variable bitrateVideo parts 2-4: H265 MP4, 2560x1440 (WQHD). 25fps, variable bitrateAudio: AAC 48 kHz, 320 kbps stereoFul English subtitles by me (embedded/hardcoded). Narrated by Michael in English, a professional American voice actor.Total running time of the start-to-finish videos: 4 hours 56 minutes.Total size of the download: about 11,6 GB.You can download the files separately, so you don’t have to download one huge file all at once.This is the third and largest tutorial in a series about woodland photography, where we specifically tackle different locations, seasons and lighting conditions. Ready to enter the Dark Forest with me?

Overview

Section 1: Intro & Late Summer Forests

Lecture 1 Late summer

Section 2: Autumn Color Separation

Lecture 2 Autumn Color Separation

Section 3: Winter in all its facets

Lecture 3 Winter in all its facets

Section 4: Spring Brook

Lecture 4 Spring Brook

Section 5: Additional Video Content

Lecture 5 Luminosity Masking with TK Rapidmask (free)

Lecture 6 Luminosity Masking with TK Multi-Mask (paid)

Lecture 7 Luminosity Masking through Channel Selections (no plugins)

Lecture 8 Saving, Sharpening and Exporting your Photos for the Web

Lecture 9 Setting the Correct Color Space

Beginner photographers wanting to expand their skillset in post-processing.